Lucy +Adi's River Barn Wedding at Malmesbury

Lucy + Adi's River Barn Wedding at Malmesbury

Every time I sit down to write about a wedding, I remember how it made me feel. Something I'm incredibly  privileged to to be a part of, to witness and take part in is your wedding.

Each and every wedding I've shot has had a common thread of intense together-ness, of everyone pulling together to make it happen and to get everything just right for the couple that they all know and love. 

Lucy and Adi's wedding was no exception, and you could really see the time and effort gone in to get everything looking beautiful. The wedding, held at River Barn in Malmesbury, which by the way is a super sweet intimate venue, happened to fall on one of those great little sunny days that we sometimes get here in the UK, and epitomised the late summer September weather. We had just the right amount of sunshine, warmth, and beautiful light and although these guys were pretty nervous the intimacy of the venue couldn't have suited them any better.

Thank you so much for having me shoot your day - it was a real joy to see you get married and be able to capture the day for you. 

Lucy and Adi were also kind enough to pop a little review across to me, which you can read below. Have a good old peruse of these photos, it was hard to keep the number down, but here's some of my favourites!

"We were thrilled and delighted with the services Naomi provided prior to, during, and after the wedding. Beforehand she took the time to meet with us, discuss our requirements and wishes for the day and offered a pre-wedding / engagement shoot. This helped us to understand how Naomi works as well as helped us to think about the style of photographs for the day, something that I feel was crucial. On the day, Naomi went above and beyond to ensure our day ran smoothly. Besides ensuring an array of moments were caught on camera, Naomi ensured my dress and hair was set correct and offered a wealth of tips that helped in the preparations prior to the ceremony. The shots of the day were simply stunning. The package we received after our wedding was exceptional. Tailored and personal, with a touch of care and sophistication, which brought us to tears. We would truly recommend Naomi Jane photography to enable you to magically capture your special day."

SALLY + SIMON - 1 DAY TO GO!

SALLY + SIMON - 1 DAY TO GO!

EEEK - This lovely pair get married tomorrow and if the wedding has nearly half as much joy as the engagement shoot, I know it'll be filled with love and laughter.

We caught up just under a month ago to chat about the plans, and have a little wander around near the venue. I can't wait to see how everything (and everyone) looks all dressed up and ready to go!

Laughter and sense of humour: my mum would always say would the things that get you through the good times and the bad, so don't pack for a relationship without it...This pair have it in spades and I know are going to have an amazing day and future ahead of them :)

Lauren + Lee - Part 1: A sunny autumn pre-shoot

Lauren + Lee - Part 1: A sunny autumn pre-shoot

Hanging out with Lauren and Lee is a bit like a giant hug. This pair pretty much never stop laughing, so our little pre-shoot was a joy to behold.

We met up for a tasty breakfast, and a bit of a planning meeting - for What Was To Come... which was all very Secret and Exciting. But we'll get to that - as this is part 1 of a stupendous triptych of posts. Yep, we have that much ground to cover, and I promise you it's all amazing. Then we pottered around the Bristol Museum (where else are you going to get dinosaurs in your shoot?!) and afterwards found a little sunny spot in a nearby park. This has all the snuggles, all the laughs and a dinosaur - what more could you need?

Looking back at this shoot fills me with the warm feeling you get from the autumn sunshine that we played in, and from those head thrown back laughing moments, because there have been more than a few of those with these guys in the last couple of months.

Part 1: The pre-shoot - 

TWENTYFIFTEEN ROUNDUP

TWENTYFIFTEEN ROUNDUP

My goodness. This year has flown by in the blink of an eye, and has been pretty ruddy incredible.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, as I'm currently preparing myself for a little trip abroad, for a shoot and then some time to relax and revive before the hectic and exciting 2016 gets in to full swing.

2015 has seen me shoot over 20 weddings, working with some magnificent people and seeing some new places! It's taken me around the UK and over to Luxembourg and Belgium, I'm headed to Thailand this week for a very special shoot, and next year I'm hoping the travel will continue with a South of France jaunt already booked in. Big thanks to some of the photographers I've worked with this year - it's really great to be part of a community which supports each other!

To all my 2015 couples. You are amazing and I love you all - I've been honoured to share your days. To all the 2016 couples  - I literally cannot wait to get cracking on this new year, and see all the stupendous plans I've heard about come together!!

Here's some highlights of my last year. PEACE OUT AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

OH SNAP!

OH SNAP!

So – hey there...This is my entry to win a place at the amazing Snap Festival...

My photography journey is a twisting and turning one.

When I was in my teens I remember my aunt and Uncle asking me what I wanted to do – I was super into illustration and skateboards at the time, so my response in all seriousness was that I wanted to draw cool stuff that ended up as skateboard deck designs. Skip forward to 12 years later, and that sort of stuff doesn't seem so crazy now that one of my friends is killing it with his illustration, which graces several walls in venues in London as well as Toy Machine skateboards. Funny huh. Who'd have thought …

I started photographing things when I was about 4. We would go on family holidays to Switzerland, driving across France, and my mum bought us all those small disposable cameras and a journal. Mine was pink (naturally) and it was the best nudge into creative thinking I think I could have ever had.

Throughout my growing up, I've always been fascinated how something as simple as a photograph, a still image, a stolen moment , is a complete window into another world. I used to spend hours pouring over a suitcase of old photographs that my parents had from their time in Africa (which is where I was born, but we came back when I was 1, so I'm the only one in the family who has no memory of it.) These photos looked like they were from another time (well, the 80s I guess and a bit before) – the world out there was just that little bit more dated and looked warm and balmy and I was willing myself to have some kind of memory of it. It was part of me.

So it didn't seem crazy in my teens when I starting shooting with my manual film SLR during my ND at college, that a career in photographing BMX (yep, I went from skateboards to bikes) wasn't an option. I knew several good riders, a couple who were sponsored, and 1 who took me under his wing to meet some guys at a local BMX magazine... but it still wasn't time.

I decided that my latest passion was shooting bands (it had nothing to do with the fact that a boy I had met was in a screamy, shouty grindcore band -yes, yes I know, you're learning all kinds of stuff about who I am today that I don't think you'd glean from looking at me...) that this started a basis for shooting things that now I look back, I didn't realise I was even doing. Shooting in a reportage style, getting candids of peoples' reactions – but really it was the passion that I yearned to capture in that still.

Music you see was a form of expression for Mike (the guy on the floor above) like no other. This was grief in it's rawest form, poured out through the lyrics, and each show wholly devastates him. When I was taking these photos, it was my way of acknowledging the grief. It's only recently, now that he's resurfaced in a new band that I realised it.

This for me is raw passion and emotion, which is why I've chosen a couple of these images as my entry for Snap Festival. I want to get back to my roots. I want to capture the raw emotion that's just below the surface in every one of the photos we take, be it bands, sports, weddings. This is what makes my heart beat faster, even typing this now. Photography for me, is my expression in it's rawest form, of my joy, my grief, my curiosity and without a camera I feel, well a bit naked.

I've had some serendipitous turns in my journey through making images, meeting some of my heros - Emma Case on a train back from Bath, which then led to me and they boy being the test couple for her Welcome Home workshop in Bristol, which in turn kickstarted my heart into remembering why I loved to photograph.

Meeting Lydia Stamps, through a mutual friend and then at the Welcome Home workshop (without realising who each other were after our mutual friend had talked to us both about each other...) who has been a huge support in me getting my feet back on the ground with shooting. She also shot my wedding. She's generally amazeballs. Going to Lisa Devlin's Photography Farm, which has taught me so much about shooting, networking and starting a business and helped me meet some kindred souls. At the time, I was getting married that same year, and I just wasn't in the right place to put everything in to practice, but being part of the group and being in touch with people has enriched and pushed me.

I feel like I'm now on the cusp of getting to where I want to be, slowly inching my way towards being able to give up that day job – and a place at Snap would fan those flames of passion and boost me in the right direction and hopefully make me braver than ever before.

Each time I've evaluated what I want to do with my life (from skateboard designing, to shooting bands and bikes and the like) it's always seemed like an in-achieve-able fancy, and for the first time, I feel like I can actually do this. It's time to stop pretending, and start doing, and lets be honest, I'd be foolish not to grab a chance of winning something like this.

Snap baby, keep my beating heart burning and burn away that fear.

*Apologies about image quality – these are scanned in prints from back in the day, long lost in the archives...

Elliot + Sophie's Bath Eshoot - LESS THAN 2 WEEKS GUYS

Sophie, Elliot and I go back, long enough now that I feel like I can say way back. Way back when we were all slogging hard in the trenches (of Debenhams life) and I feel like we've shared a lot. 

When you see someone everyday for working life, you feel their ups, their downs and that's why I can really share in their joy of getting married (IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS)!! 

I'm a bit excited...

We went for a jaunt down along the river near Bath (the River Avon for those that might want to know facts and stuff), and they were both very sporting when I spotted the best field to go and have a  traipse in!! There were splinters (not from the field) and near slip overs (me) and also tears (again me with the only ever hayfever reaction I've had in life). But there was also a lot of love. This pair are shy, but it doesn't always need to be the big grand gestures to see just how ace they are together <3

Also - they fed me dinner (we went for sneaky post shoot pub visit) - this is a sure way to my heart :) Thanks guys!

Bristol Balloon Fiesta Shoot - Darren + Georgia

So what do you do when you live in a city renowned for it's annual balloon fiesta... Well only drag your darling couples of of their cosy beds at a ridiculously early time of morning to go and play with the balloons!!!

My goodness - Darren and Georgia (not to mention Chester and Cooper) were absolute legends and rose bright and early to go on our early morning, first flight of the day adventure to Bristol's Balloon Fiesta! It was a really special thing to be able to do, with these guys being local - they used to come to the fiesta regularly, and for me - it was my first fiesta!

There's definitely something a bit magical about hot air balloons - I can't put my finger on it - but it seems to bring our the inner child and wonder in everyone.  

Are you starting to miss summer? Kick back, have a peruse through these because this morning couldn't have embodied the Great British summer morning in all it's warm sunny goodness!

JO + CONAL'S TAUNTON FARM WEDDING

This wedding makes my heart sing a triumphant chorus about all the things that weddings should be. Jo and Conal are the absolute bomb, and their day was chokkablock full of love, raucous laughter and all out dancing. Like the swinging your arms, legs and hair, total body experience kind of dancing. 

It took place at Roughmoor Farm, and whilst the sky had threatened all week to rain on our parade, there was only a quick refreshing shower during the vows (when else of course...) and the rest of the day was a brilliant mix of baking hot sunshine and occasional sticky summer breeze. Roughmoor Farm is a beautiful venue, just the right size and just the right amount of manicured and rustic, nestled just outside Taunton in Somerset.

Now, the dress.... I generally find most wedding dresses are an awesome creation to behold, but Jo's dress... This Claire Pettibone number was just something else,the gold and grey embroidery and the ethereal feel of the dress suited Jo to an absolute T. She bought the dress second-hand, and you know something like that is meant to be when the person selling the dress happens to be visiting your home-town the weekend after you first enquire! Anyone looking for a dress thats just a bit different take a look at some Claire Pettibone dresses!

Jo and Conal are incredibly warm and genuine, and all the hard work they spent putting their day together and making decorations definitely paid off. 

I tried a few times to bring down the number of images for this post, but I love the story of the day so much, and there were so many amazing little moments that what you se here is still just the tip of the iceberg. It's hard to narrow it down when everything in the day looks at awesome as this...

I hope you enjoying looking at these images as much as I enjoyed being there to take them. 

*A small side-note for any future brides of grooms to be. There was a terribly disappointing theft of Jo and Conal's cards and gifts after the wedding. Be sure to delegate someone in your family, or your bridal party to pack up and take all the gifts and cards home perhaps half way through the night, or at the end of the day so you know they're all safe. In this day and age it's a horribly sad thing that some people will go to just about any lengths to get something that's not theirs. 

Olly + Sarah's Brighton Wedding SNEAK

Three words - just three little words. GOLD SPARKLY DRESS!!

My day with these two beautiful souls was nothing short of epic. After just a couple of chats on the phone, when I finally met them both on Saturday it felt like I had known them a lot longer, and they are beautiful inside and out. But I don't need to tell you that - I'm pretty sure you can see from their sneak...

Georgia+Darren Balloon Fiesta Shoot SNEAK

This morning I got up at 4.40am. I'd usually stay comatose until at least 9ish (on an early day off), but today, I was super excited to go the Bristol's Balloon Fiesta for the first time. And we were gonna make it count - going to the first take off which starts between 6am-8am. 

Georgia, Darren, Cooper and Chester all arrived a little sleepy eyed but cheerful  and we set off.

It was definitely worth the early start - here's just a couple of sneaks.

Susy + Dilwyn's Park Hall Hotel Wedding

Today I've posted a very special parcel containing an album and USB, and a couple of little surprises to this lovely pair.

Susy + Dilwyn got married at the Park Hall Hotel in Chorley and had a beautiful wedding filled with their family and friends close around them.  I accompanied them on romantic carriage-ride where we got some really ace couple photos, and had special permission to use a beautiful barn and garden! 

I felt so privileged to be at this intimate day - here's how it all went...

David, Georgie and Winnie - Bedminster Pre-Wedding Shoot

AHHH - Tomorrow I get to hang out with this awesome little gang again for their cider farm wedding! I'm pretty excited about it, as I have a feeling it's going to be a feast for all the senses with a whole shed load of home made DIY touches.

I was introduced to this little family through the joys of email by my friend Cris, who I work with in my part time day job. Amongst other things he mentioned that David is an artist, how they were DIY-ing everything for the wedding that's going to be held on a cider farm (he was very excited at the prospect of all the cider) and how down to earth they were. I've got to say when I first met David, Georgie and Winnie at their home for a pre-wedding meeting and shoot, I felt as though I already knew them!

These guys are incredibly warm and genuine, and I can't wait to shoot their wedding. 

In the meantime however, here's the rest of their pre-wedding shoot, all taken place in their own Bedminster home and garden!

Elliot + Sophie Bath Eshoot SNEAK

 I do love it when a plan comes together! After several changes of date due to weather we finally managed to get a little time in for Sophie + Elliot's pre-wedding shoot in Bath. You gotta love the light after a good old rain storm!

Gallery Block

These are example images. Double-click here to replace these images with your own content. Learn more

Paul + Andrea SNEAK

Paul + Andrea, just one week ago will have been contemplating all the things you do before THE BIG DAY, only a little differently.

These guys had an intimate legal ceremony at Bristol Registry Office last Wednesday, more as a prelude to their wedding on Saturday. 

With just a few of their nearest and dearest, they didn't want to let this day go by without a bit of a record, which is where I came in. We went for a little jaunt round St Nick's market post ceremony to soak up the afternoon and sun and grab a milkshake. Here's a few sneaks...

Dave, Georgie + Winnie - Pre-wedding Garden Sneak

Yesterday Dave, Georgie and Winnie welcomed me into their humble abode to talk over some plans for their August wedding. Their DIY wedding is going to be epic - with a truck load of hand made thoughtful details on a working cider farm. Can things get much better than that? Here's a sneak of two very down to earth creative souls, and the centre of their world.

Jo + Conal - Folly Farm Engagement Shoot

This afternoon I'm meeting this lovely lady to go over some final bits and pieces for her wedding day. I'm planning a bit of a tea and cake moment in the garden I think, to make the most of this sunny sunny weather (the perks of working at home!).

It's just two weeks (TWO BLOODY WEEKS) until she's get wed to her boy Conal, in what I know is going to be a stunning day.  I cannot wait to see all the details these guys have got planned!

We went on a little jaunt around Folly Farm in Bristol for a pre-wedding shoot (once i had got my car out of a tiny tiny lane that I'm pretty sure wasn't meant for 4 wheeled traffic - thank you satnav, I do love a bit of adventure!), and the weather rivalled what I'm seeing today, with beautiful blue skies and sunshine.

These two are super chilled, and for people who aren't keen on photos of themselves, I think they look pretty darn sweet. 

Steve + Lauren - Coombe Lodge Wedding

Things have been a little bit quiet here on the blog and on the Facebook page of late - which I'm pretty sorry for! But when I look at image like this, it reminds me to take a breath. A deep cleansing - right through to my bones breath.

It's not that I haven't been busy I assure you - you know when swans are gliding through the water, but their legs are peddling like mad? It's been just a little bit like that (except I wouldn't say I glide through life with the infinite grace that a swan has...).

There've been wedding, trips to London, trips to Birmingham with the amazing Photography Farm (for Grand Flash Master Adam Bronkhorst's flash course), more weddings and a WHOLE lot of website progress on my part!

Never the less - here the blogging train begins (I am back on it I promise) starting with the ace wedding of Steve and Lauren at Coombe Lodge near Bath.
The guys are lovely - I met then when I worked in Debenhams (the place of dreams) and we kept in touch afterwards. They are super chilled out, and some of the loveliest people you're going to meet.

Here's their day from start to end - overdue, but worth the wait.

The Tide's Changing...

First, you must be able to swim against the current, before you can help those who are drowning.